TEM Image Rod and Sphere Sizing Program
This nanoparticle sizing program has been developed by one of our undergraduate researchers, Andrew Ritchhart. While particle counting programs and plug-ins are readily available, the vast majority of these programs only supports the counting of circular nanoparticles, and is not able to distinguish between the length and diameter of anisotropic particles. We hope that this rod sizing program will be able to aid other researchers in their analysis of TEM images of rod-shaped nanoparticles, and expedite the otherwise tedious process of accurately determining nanoparticle length and width.
How it works:
When given a TEM image to analyze, the program uses edge detection methods combined with specially designed analysis algorithms to determine the length and diameter of rods in an image. Once the scale has been defined, the program can output Excel-compatible data for the dimensions of each particle. The user has additional controls over process such as the ability to adjust threshold, “cut apart” particles, or remove false positive responses to detection.
Downloadable zip file will include:
- Sample TEM image of gold nanorods made by Joshua Hinman (100 nm scale bar). Average dimensions of rods in the sample image in nanometers are 73.1 ± 8.1 (length) and 17.7 ± 1.8 (width)
- Text document with operating instructions
- Nanoparticle sizing program
System Requirements:
This software requires a Windows OS and OpenGL 2.0 or greater support. OpenGL 2.0 is widely supported on CPUs made within the last decade. This software requires no pre-installed programs such as MATLAB, Origin, etc. and runs as a standalone executable.
While we have not written a paper describing this program, we would appreciate acknowledgements to Andrew Ritchhart and our research group for the use of this program.
Questions or comments can be directed to Wayne Lin (wlin19@illinois.edu).